Next Best Thing blog hop

What is the working title of your book?

Strange Angels

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I like the idea of gods as essentially fatally overpowered teenagers. Moody, capricious, just concerned with their own petty squabbles and nothing else … kind of like regular people. And what happens if your absentee dad is one of these gods, and oh yeah, he’s dead and passed on his powers to you, and some other gods, who you didn’t even know existed, wanted to kill you? It’s well trod territory, but I hope I’m livening it up with my usual weirdness and humor.

What genre does your book fall under?

Fantasy. Honestly, this is probably one of the clearest genre pieces I’ve ever done. Usually I just make a hash of things.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

Wow. This is always a super hard question for me for some reason. Maybe because I have a specific idea of what the characters look like, and they’re not existing people. Rami Malik would make a decent Bren, though, the human who seems to be the dog toy in a god war he can’t understand. As for his angel protector, Dar, he’d have to be a muscular guy who didn’t mind working under lots of body paint and tattoos. (They’re not actually tattoos though – you’ll have to read the story to find out what they actually are). Could be a male model. I mean, he’s an angel. No matter how strange he may look, he’s still hot. Just weird hot. Bob? Oh, he’d have to be an Australian actor for sure. Hugh Jackman, Chris Hemsworth, anyone like that. Just lay the accent on thick – perhaps a little too thick – and be wildly charming. Apparent age and coloration don’t matter that much, as long as Bob seems way too charming to ever be trusted by anyone. He’s a con man god, so he’d work every angle he possibly could. And Eris needs to be a scary, dominating, kick ass (and more than a little crazy) kind of woman, so of course Sigourney Weaver.

What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?

You think you’ve got troubles?

Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?

I have Riptide Publishing on the hook for this one.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Ha ha! I’m still working on it. There were technical issues (hello hard drive death!) that put me behind, and then life interfered in a variety of ways. I’m still putting the pieces together, but I’m almost there. Although, in a technical sense, this isn’t the first draft, because I wrote a story kind of like this a long time ago, lost to the ages now. (Literally. I think I lost it in a move.)

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre.

Oh dear, I hate that. I hate comparing books to each other, because each book is different and brings something to the table, even if it’s just horrible. If I can compare it to my own works, I’d say it’s closer to Josh of the Damned than Infected, but only because of all the random weirdness. There’s other dimensions, and other forms of madness, and could be very well tied into Josh’s universe. I don’t make that so in the book, but it’s an easy assumption to make.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Mythology is kind of fun. There’s so many weird legends and obscure gods that are really quite bizarre and entertaining. How do they function? Why do they even exist? Why were they worshipped and then forgotten? Do gods have a shelf life? Do they even know or care if they’re worshipped by humans? I just digress into one question after another, and decided to try and make up some answers.

What else about your book might interest the reader?

I enjoy creating weird quirks for the gods. Some have very strange worlds, and one keeps his own powers in check with duct tape. See? It really can do everything!